Archives > May 2016

At AIWC, we believe education programs that emphasize the importance of environmental protection may be the most important investment we can offer Alberta’s youth. If you’ve seen our Banding Together campaign video, you’ve seen how fostering a connection between children and wildlife can foster a live-long appreciation and advocacy for wild animals.

To support this understanding, AIWC is dedicated to teaching kids about wildlife conservation and offers a range of Wildlife Education Programs. These programs cover topics such as animals of Alberta, wetlands, animal adaptations, wildlife migration patterns, and several species-specific presentations.

In turn, this engagement is expected to foster a respect for natural surroundings and grow a generation dedicated to ensuring the environment is protected for decades to come. Not to mention, the added side effect of improved health and well being from being active outdoors!

Litter is everywhere humans are – road sides, parks, lakes, forests, school grounds and parking lots. It’s even in our own back yards!

Not only is litter bad for our environment, but it drastically impacts wildlife and other animals. Animals have an amazing sense of sight and smell, which can draw them to litter when in search of food. They have no way of knowing that our waste is dangerous for them.

Litter is hazardous to wildlife and other animals because they can:

get their heads stuck in jars, cups or other kinds of containers that smell of food, causing them to suffocate or starve to death when they are unable to get the container off of their heads.

cut themselves on cans and broken glass – injuries that could be fatal or lead to infection.

get their heads or another parts of their body stuck in plastic six-pack rings, making it difficult for them to move or fly.

eat household waste and cleaners from garbage bins that could be toxic, causing extreme illness or death.

eat plastic or latex (e.g., balloons) that they mistake for food, which can make them sick or block their digestive tract and cause them to starve.

get caught inside plastic bags, causing them to suffocate.

get tangled in string, ropes, or netting, rendering them unable to free themselves.

At AIWC, two of the most common causes of wildlife injuries we treat are directly related to litter: (1) animal/vehicle collisions, and (2) fishing line entanglement or ingestion.

Roadside litter is both very dangerous and very attractive to wildlife. Birds, for example, may swoop down to grab an apple core or a candy wrapper someone tossed out the window, putting them at risk of being hit by traffic.

Waterfowl or other animals that live by lakes and rivers can ingest or become entangled in fishing line that was left behind, causing them to become ill or unable to swim, fly, or eat.

Remember: throwing out even the tiniest piece of gum can be dangerous for an animal – it can stick to their wings or fur making mobility difficult or impossible.

Here are ways you can help to keep wildlife and other animals safe from litter:

Never litter!

Pick up litter you come across and dispose of it properly.

Make sure on your garbage and recycle containers have secure, properly-fitting lids.

Make sure to wash out your cans, bottles and other recyclables thoroughly before disposing of them. This will help to remove some of the scent caused from food residue.

Crush pop cans once you’ve rinsed them and, as an extra precaution, turn the tab on the pop can so that it goes across the hole. This will prevent small animals like mice from crawling in.

Put lids back on plastic containers and jars once they are rinsed and ready to be recycled.

Cut up plastic six pack rings before recycling them.

Tie a knot in the middle of any plastic bags you are recycling.

Take any leftover household cleaning products and other toxic chemicals to the Eco Station.

Refrain from releasing balloons at events, which can cause deadly wildlife entanglement or ingestion.

Share this information with others.

As always, if you find injured or orphaned wildlife, please call us at 403-946-2361.

“We don’t own the earth. We are the earth’s caretakers. We take care of it and all the things on it. And when we’re done with it, it should be left better than we found it.” Katherine Hannigan, author.

Photo credit: AIWC Volunteer, B. Chalmers.

Maintaining the AIWC centre requires a lot of volunteer commitment from a wide range of individuals with varying interests and skills. Each day volunteers work to clean indoor enclosures, ensuring the animals in our care have safe, comfortable, and sanitary environments in which to recover. This also results in numerous loads of laundry every day, meaning AIWC has to repair or replace washing machines and dryers much more frequently than an average household might.

Additional upkeep requires general maintenance like changing lightbulbs and fixing drains, but more significant construction work is ongoing to make sure, not only those animals staying temporarily, but also our resident education ambassadors, Griffin the red tailed hawk and Gulliver the striped skunk, remain safe and secure while at the centre.

Ongoing restoration of outdoor enclosures is necessary to keep recovering animals in and other animals out, while also creating a visual barrier to humans to prevent habituation that may inhibit wildlife release of our patients. You may also remember the severe hailstorms that hit in August 2014 that also caused significant damage to outdoor enclosures, requiring several emergency repair jobs by our volunteer construction team.

Artificial outside ponds must to be filled, emptied, and sanitized throughout the busy summer season. Specialized structures like the runway demand regular upkeep to maintain a safe space that helps recovering birds such as owls practice and regain flight.

AIWC volunteers have completed PVC framing work around large indoor tubs that provide temporary habitat for water-dwelling mammals like beavers and muskrats. Other finishing work has also been done at the centre in recent years (including getting a new sink this winter for the endless dishes we need to do!), and we have plans to upgrade existing structures and build new, necessary spaces to meet our constantly growing patient intake numbers.

AIWC could not provide this level of support to Alberta’s animals without the wide range of rehabilitative facilities available onsite, but this requires significant volunteer and in-kind support. If you would like to help AIWC with its wildlife recovery activities, please consider volunteering at AIWC or contributing to our wildlife baby shower wish list.

Rough-legged hawks (Buteo lagopus), or, affectionately, roughies, are a common raptor species in Alberta. They migrate each winter from their nesting grounds in the Arctic, passing through Alberta on their journey south to the United States. If the winter here is mild, a few may spend the whole season in Alberta.

The prairies and large, treeless areas are favourite hunting grounds of roughies. Here, they hunt small mammals like hares, mice, and ground squirrels. One characteristic that makes rough-legged hawks easily identifiable is how they hunt: they hover over their prey in one spot from above, rather than circling. Just like other raptors, this species is protected under the provincial Wildlife Act as non-game, meaning no one is allowed to hunt them.

This rough-legged hawk came to us this winter after a responsible member of the public found him in distress and brought him to a Calgary veterinary clinic, who cared for him until one of our volunteer rescue drivers was able to pick him up. He had visible problems using his left wing.

Upon examination, he was diagnosed with a broken clavicle, possible the result of blunt trauma, such as a vehicle collision. Further examination and x-rays revealed he also had pellets embedded inside him, evidence of having been (illegally) shot likely some months prior. It is entirely possible his previous injuries from being shot resulted in reduced mobility for this hawk, and increased likelihood of future harm.

The main concern for his recovery was the proper healing of his clavicle. As with people, if a broken bone is not aligned, it will have limited mobility after it is healed, and for a hawk dependent upon his ability to fly for every aspect of his survival, a broken bone can leave him unable to return to the wild.

Over the course of his care, the roughie’s health deteriorated and it was increasingly unlikely his injuries would heal enough for him to be able to fly, hunt, and migrate. The decision to humanely euthanize him became the only option; he would not be able to be returned to the wild as a self-sufficient bird. Unfortunately, this is a stark reality of wildlife rehabilitation: even the best care cannot heal some of our patients enough that they can be returned to the wild where they belong.

Remember: if you find a hawk or any other wild animal in need of help, we are open every day. Call our Wildlife Hotline at 403-946-2361 right away for help and advice.

Additionally, if you witness any acts of cruelty against wildlife, be sure to report it to the authorities right away – even the smallest squirrel and noisiest magpie each deserve our compassion and play an important role in our natural ecosystems.

Did you know that few areas in the world have more diverse wildlife than Alberta? Our province is home to 587 wildlife species, including 411 bird species, 93 mammal species, 65 fish species, and 10 species of amphibians.

Since our founding in 1993, we have admitted over 250 different wildlife species and spring and summer are our peak seasons for animal intakes. On any given day during this time we can have 200-300 animals in care and admitting up to 30 new patients each day.

The majority of animals in our care in spring and summer are babies that have been orphaned or injured. Some are also “kidnapped”, which means they have been taken by well intentioned members of the public but did not need rescuing. This is common for animals such as: hares, squirrels, fawns, goslings, ducklings, and nestling and fledgling birds. We make every effort to reunite these babies with their parents but unfortunately it is not always possible.

In 2015, AIWC provided care for over 1000 baby wildlife animals! Starting May 1st, 2016 we are asking for your help to raise $12,000 to support our costs during our peak seasons of spring and summer.

Every little bit helps! It can range from $100 to over $1000 to rehabilitate an individual animals and all funds go towards ensuring AIWC can continue to serve the needs of Alberta’s diverse wildlife.

Donations of items on our wish list are most welcome too, these are items we use everyday.

To wrap up our 2nd annual baby shower event, we will be hosting an on-site talk on Sunday, May 29th, from 1pm until 4pm at our facility. More information can be found on our upcoming events page.

It all comes down to this:

“We don’t own the earth. We are the earth’s caretakers. We take care of it and all the things on it. And when we’re done with it, it should be left better than we found it.” ― Katherine Hannigan, author.